


Promblematic Behavior & My Fellow Johnlock Fans

by LillithsGarden



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Essays, Gen, Meta, Rants
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-28
Updated: 2016-04-28
Packaged: 2018-06-05 00:11:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6681661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LillithsGarden/pseuds/LillithsGarden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A brief and rant-like personal essay about the behavior of some of my fellow Johnlock fans concerning things such as treatment of fellow fans who don't hold the exact same view of the pairing, and the harmfulness of how asexual Sherlock is often portrayed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Promblematic Behavior & My Fellow Johnlock Fans

**Author's Note:**

> Over my years in the Sherlock fandom I've noticed some disturbing trends. Readers should be forewarned that the following essay is written from the view of someone who is among, other things, on the asexuality spectrum and gets a bit ranty when that topic comes up in the essay. This is more a vinegar essay than a honey one.

I feel weird as a Johnlock fan saying this, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I get why some people in the SHERLOCK fandom avoid us. Sometimes I don’t want to be around other Johnlock fans either for the following reasons: 1) The often rabid reaction to someone saying that their being in love doesn’t mean they’ve slept together or will ever sleep together. 2) What seems like constant insinuation by my fellow fans that, if someone has the audacity to call out offensive portrayals of an asexual Sherlock, then that person must be a  homophobic asshole who deserves to be chewed out for not seeing how perfect a story is. Even when the person mentioning how offensive it is is themselves what Sherlock is being supposedly being portrayed as, a homoromantic asexual. 3) The aversion to the idea, also to the point of calling anyone who can picture it homophobic, that what is being portrayed by John and Sherlock on the show is a deep and extremely abiding type of old-fashioned type of friendship known as “passionate friendship.”

It goes without saying that this essay is my take on the issue and I don’t expect anyone else to feel the same way about its topic as I do. So that said, let’s move on to the easiest topic on the list: rabid fellow fans. Everyone has their own ideas as to what comprises a rabid fellow fan, but mine includes fans who make even the staunches fans of a pairing uncomfortable in their level of fanning. Who react with the reasoning from the paragraph above this one for no reason whatsoever. The extreme fundamentalists of the fandom, if that makes any sense.

Personally, people like that just make me uncomfortable. I don’t want to be attacked for seeing how my fellow fans who aren’t Johnlock fans view the pairing, if they’re polite and not homophobic in their reasoning that is. I’ve never believed in the dogmatic view some people take when it comes to a pairing. So when a fellow Johnlock fan calls someone like me a homophobe, and I’ll explain how that is wildly inaccurate when I come to the second point on my list of reasons my fellow fans sometimes make me want avoid them, or someone who dared write Mystrade without including their beloved Johnlock a homophobe, I end up just shaking my head. I'd chew them out if I didnt. I don’t think anyone has the right to tell someone they’re a traitor to their OTP, or be nasty because someone is willing to talk to polite people on the other side of the whole shipping issue. Shipping isn't, nor should it be a life or death thing. Even in the metaphorical sense. It should be fun, not stress inducing.

This moves us into point two. I’m a homoromantic demisexual who chooses to call herself a lesbian for the sake of simplicity in my day to day life. I idenitfy the way I do because I understand that's what people are going to view me as anyway, and I don't want to take the easy rout of being able to refuse explaining further about my orientation when other people don't have that chance. My original work also focuses almost exclusively on LGBT characters of various backgrounds, and I'm writing a novel featuring an LGBT lead character because that's what I love writing. I'm no more a homophobe than any other queer person who is involved in the community and does what they can to further the acceptence of LGBT folk. I feel comfortable saying other people with a similar background to mine likely aren't either. 

Asexuality, demisexuality etc. are little understood sexual orientations and misrepresenting us is just as harmful as misrepresentation of gay, lesbian, and trans people was back in the day. Hell, how it still is in the case of bisexual and trans people today.If I and/or multiple people on the ace ( asexuality) spectrum review a work and find something offensive in how Sherlock is portrayed, then please engage us politely as long as we are also polite in our responses.

No one has the right to actively harm another human being via wildly inaccurate portrayals of their identity just for the sake of their art. Think about how you would feel if you had to deal with that on a regular basis. It would suck. I wish I didn’t have to mention it, but people really do tend to not look further than when it comes to something like this than what they learn about it in fiction

That said, if you would prefer to have rainbow and sunshine reviews, then just ask in the author’s note, preferably at the top of the story in its designated spot. Actually, that’s a good idea for anyone to do. It let’s people looking for serious critique of their work get it, and let’s those not desiring that sort of crit get the kind they’re comfortable with. It’s a win-win. I know that I won’t complain, though I know some people might. That’s your right. What’s so great about fan-fiction is how flexible it is and how much it can bend to the will of the writer.

The last point on my list, however, I’ve got to say that it is the one that baffles me the most. Myself being in this sort of friendship, I don’t see anything wrong or anti-Johnlock about someone viewing  the pairing in that way. I understand why they take Moffat and Gatiss at face value, because that’s the only other explanation in my mind for John and Sherlock’s behavior if they’re not romantically interested in each other. Passionate friendships have existed for a very long time, both same-gender and opposite gender. Probably since at least the dawn of civilization. They were particularly praised in the 18th and 19th centuries, the 19th and early 20th being the time when A.C. Doyle, the man who wrote the original Sherlock stories which were published in The Strand, was writing Sherlock. There's even been a lot of scholarly work published on the subject of passionate friendship as it pertains to John and Sherlock over the last century, so it isn't like it is a new theory. 

Do I prefer to see John and Sherlock in a big-R romantic light? You bet your ass that I do. Even seeing what people mean, as someone who has experienced what that type of relationship is like, I see things which clearly don't fit that aren't directly related to the massive amounts of queerbaiting on the show. But as long as they keep it in the John & Sherlock section, the platonic tag, it’s no skin off my nose. What do I care about someone else’s views on my favorite pairing if they’re properly labeling their stories? Or if they choose to write Johnlock stories and John & Sherlock friendship stories? They're certainly not forcing me to do the same thing they are.

So, in short, I love my fandom. I love my ship. But damn do I hate how people who are fellow fans can act towards each other. Why the hell can't we all just respect each other and enjoy our mutual enjoyment of this awesome pairing without metaphorically shitting all over everyone else?


End file.
